6 minute read
Heavenly Trinity
Delicious seafood dishes in one of Newfoundland’s prettiest towns
BY DARCY RHYNO
Snow crab cakes, lightly battered cod, and seared scallops. I’m savouring samples of this heavenly trinity at the Dock Restaurant in what I think of as one of Newfoundland’s prettiest towns, Trinity, the jewel of the Bonavista Peninsula. Trinity’s good looks begin right here in what the restaurant refers to as a restored fishing premises. Today, it’s a restaurant, marina, and gallery. The two-storey wooden building on the Trinity waterfront opened 300 years ago as a salt cod storage shed when Trinity was a wealthy salt fish capital. Today, its simple red façade stands out against the harbour, one of the last from a generation of buildings designed to serve the fishing industry. It’s easy to imagine moored Spanish and Portuguese schooners, ready to load their salted cargo.
Adirondack chairs and picnic tables painted yellow, blue, red, and green line the narrow dock. Ramps lead down to where small boats are tied, ready for a buzz around the bay. Inside, the building retains its storage shed feel with creaky wooden floors beneath the open joists of the second-floor gallery and gift shop.
The seafood-first menu is as straightforward and unadorned as the building itself: fish and chips, seafood chowder, snow crab claws and shoulders, fried cod tongues with pork scrunchions (bits of fried salt pork), and cod au gratin (baked in white sauce topped with cheese). Sampling such traditional dishes is like tasting Trinity’s history as a centuries-old seafaring town.
With the fishery in Newfoundland and Trinity a mere shadow of its former industrial-scale self, the town has evolved while honouring its past. My favourite place to immerse myself in Trinity history is the Mercantile Premises Provincial Historic Site, a 19th-century general store stocked with period goods including handmade lace, bowler hats, shoes, yarn, children’s games, Morses Tea, and Post Toasties cereal. Another immersion experience awaits next door. Inside the Green Family Forge, a blacksmith is at work, hammering out everything from hinges and knives to delicate jewelry.
More recently, folks who locals affectionately refer to as “people with accents” have helped breathe new life into the town. The Gow family has been here for decades and are among the most active in revitalizing Trinity. Across town from the dock via quiet, flower-edged lanes, is the Gow family’s Artisan Inn & Twine Loft Dining, built in another traditional waterfront building. Before they opened in 2000, Tineke Gow says there were few dining options around Trinity. On one occasion, after a long wait for a salad at one of the few restaurants in the area, a server arrived at their table, saying sheepishly, “I have to apologize. The truck didn’t come in. I have got nothing but greens from the garden.” It was a different time, she says.
The Gows’ Trinity adventure began when they bought a little house to fix up as a cottage. It had no running water. “This is a little bit of old world tucked into the new world,” Tineke Gow says. “There’s a sense of belonging, a sense of community. You feel very grounded here. I think that happens to a lot of people.”
Today, she and her husband and their daughter, Marieke, a sommelier, own a few buildings and rent some to visitors. Sitting down to dinner at the Twine Loft, Marieke recommends wines to go with dinner from those she procures for the restaurant. I order herb-brined pork with rhubarb chutney alongside potato whipped with apple, turnip, and parsnip, and a side of candied rosemary carrots.
“Pork goes with red wine, but I find you’re thinking about the sides, the sauces, too,” says Marieke. “I personally like going with white for pork because the rhubarb chutney is a bit tart. The rosé would meet nicely in the middle. If you were going with red, I’d go with a pinot noir because that’s also got a bit of that lightness, too.”
As we wait for our dinner, Tineke Gow points out the window to the rocky bluff overlooking town. “I’m hoping you go up the hill before you leave,” she says. “It’s stupendous. It has the highest elevation in the area. You’ll get a 360-degree view. If you do it in late afternoon on a sunny day, you’ll get fantastic light.”
I climb the hill the next morning as the previous day’s rainclouds lift. It’s not afternoon light, but the view is as promised. I see the bay and beyond to the islands and the open Atlantic. As if I’m looking down upon a perfect diorama, Trinity is radiant, bathed in fresh sunlight after a quenching rain, memories of sailing ships in the dark clouds retreating to the horizon.
Barren’s Blend Pudding with Hot Screech Sauce
From Artisan Inn and Vacation Homes, Twine Loft Dining in Trinity, by Twine Loft consulting Chef Bob Arniel. Twine Loft cooks Coreine Johnson and Cecily Marsden developed a gluten-free variant.
Ingredients for pudding
½ cup (125 mL) butter
1½ cups (375 mL) brown sugar
2 eggs
¼ cup (75 mL) flour*
1 tbsp (15 mL) baking powder
2 tsp (10 mL) cinnamon
2 tsp (10 mL) allspice
3 cups (750 mL) bread crumbs*
1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk
¼ cup (75 mL) blueberries
¼ cup (75 mL) partridgeberries or cranberries
Directions
Beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs until smooth. Add dry ingredients and milk. **Fold in berries. Pour in parchment-lined pan. Place a piece of parchment on top. Bake at 350F/177C for 50 minutes. **Remove top parchment. Bake for 10 more minutes.
Gluten Free Variation:
* Substitute gluten-free flour for regular. Add 1 tsp xanthan gum, if the gluten-free flour has none.
** Before folding in the berries, allow batter to rest 30 to 60 minutes. For gluten-free, turn off oven at the end, and leave pudding until edges are brown and the middle is springy.
Ingredients for screech sauce
½ cup (125 mL) unsalted butter
½ cup (125 mL) lightly packed dark brown sugar
3 tbsp (45 mL) Newfoundland Screech or dark rum
1 cup (250 mL) whipping cream
⅛ tsp (1 mL) salt
Directions
Combine butter and dark brown sugar in small saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly. After sugar is incorporated, add Screech and stir to combine. Add whipping cream and bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thickened, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
